The Neighbours
by thewizardanthedragon
Summary: AU - The children of McAbby and Tiva go looking for adventure when new neighbours move in across the street.
1. Chapter 1

A/N - A new story with new characters. Written by prompting from Chrissysmiles!

Nothing happened on their quiet cul-de-sac. For their parents this was great characteristic. For the adventurous children it meant they had to go looking for something to keep them occupied. The street was mainly inhabited by older couples or widows, having lived on the street since the houses were built, when they all had families of their own.

So when a for sale sign went up on the house directly across from Gloria's the two children were ecstatic. Not only might there be children moving in across the street but they wouldn't have to deal with old Mr. Markous anymore.

Gloria and David watched the many couples taking tours of the house and yard from Gloria's bedroom window, a perfect vantage point to see all the comings and goings without any trees or hydro poles in the way.

Kneeling on the blanket box, staring out the window they discussed each group of would be buyers. To their dismay only a few house hunters seemed to have children. They were buoyed when David suggested that parents may not take their kids on all the tours. From the time the house went up for sale until the sold sign finally appeared the kids spent their afternoons watching out the window.

As the last vestiges of winter disappeared. The kids finally saw a small moving van pull up outside the now empty house. They watched intently as three men backed the truck right up to the edge of the garage and carried in very few boxes. Not having participated in or seen any moving days other than in the movies they were struck by how little in the truck and how fast the whole event was over. The three men shut the garage and entered the code to lock it again.

While Mrs. Marshall, the older woman who cared for the kids until a parent could get home from work, fed them some supper. David and Gloria chatted non stop about who the men were. Maybe they were just the movers, maybe this was just the first of many small trips as the truck wasn't very big. They decided to not lose hope of a family with children moving in.

By the time Tony arrived to take David home the kids were making plans of how to meet the new neighbours.

When Abby came home a little later, in time to tuck Gloria in, the girl was excitedly telling her mother all about the movers and what she and David thought might be going on.


	2. The Stakeout Begins

In general the kids and Mrs. Marshall would alternate between the Sciuto-McGee and the DiNozzo residences for after school care. However Gloria convinced her parents that they should stay at their house until further notice as they wanted to be the best neighbours possible for those moving in, especially if they had kids.

It was only a few days after the initial move had occurred that the van showed up again. There was disagreement if it was the exact same van, but the two kids did agree that it was the same size and kind of van. This disagreement led to the discussion of the need for proper surveillance.

With all family members working at NCIS it was not long before the kids had a stake out set up in Gloria's room. They rearranged Gloria's furniture so the desk was now under the window and an extra chair moved in from Tim's office.

David brought an unused coil notebook from home and notes were now being kept. After four days of blank lines after the date David was starting to think that no one was actually going to be living in the house. Instead of being disheartened by this, the kids, with their family history and wild imaginations started to think up reasons why you would buy a house in a quiet neighbourhood and then only move in a few items but not live there.

On day five however there was again action. The date and license plate of the van was recorded in their notebook to prove if it was the same one showing up each time or not. David was leaning quite far out the window to see if he could tell what was being moved from the van into the garage. This was not possible as the three men did not appear around the edge of the van except to punch in the code and relock the garage once they were done.

Gloria was positive it was the same three guys. They were all very distinctive looking. To be official they wrote down a description of each of the movers. It was after supper on that evening but before David was picked up by Ziva that Gloria had the brainwave that all stakeouts need a camera.

The kids made a pact that they would both try to appertain a camera as neither of them owned one of their own.

It took a couple of days for David to find his father's backup point and shoot camera, but that didn't matter as there was no action at the house across the street that needed photos taken anyway. Gloria rummaged through her parent's office to find a small bendable tripod to set the camera up on. The tripod was so short they needed to place a stack of books on the desk so that the lense was over the edge of the window sill. Once they had the whole system set up they took a few test photos. David said they should write the number of the picture and what they were taking a photo of, to be official of course. It also gave them something to do.

A week passed and nothing happened. No deliveries, no people, nothing. Gloria and David played cards, I spy and discussed what could be the reason for the unusual move in schedule.

The Friday before Memorial Day they finally got action. Sitting by the window playing the tic tac toe the kids saw movement across the street throwing the paper to the side quickly. Gloria took pictures of the van, the license plate and then a photo of each of the three men. The camera didn't have the best zoom, but she did her best with the equipment she had at hand. David was writing down the details, the license plate, the time they arrived and what they observed the men doing. Unlike the last few times, they were carrying in a few items into the main front door. They saw a bed, a table and 2 chairs go into the front door and be set in what they assumed was the livingroom.

All details were written down, everything was photographed. This time the men didn't leave right away. Instead they looked to be moving about within the house. It was easy to see them go from room to room as there were no window coverings and the house lined up directly with the bedroom window.

Now the 2 children had spent the 10 years of their lives listening to stories of burglary, murder, assault and so many other crimes that the three men with strange move in habits set off their crime alert inner sirens. Why did they only move in one bed? Why do they only have one small table and 2 chairs set up in the living room and not the kitchen? Why had they moved things into the garage and seemingly been careful not to show anyone what they were doing?

All these questions just got the kids even more interested in what was going on across the street. Over dinner the chatted animatedly and were coming up with theories and stories to go along with what they were seeing.

Mrs. Marshall used to their overactive imaginations thought their ramblings were fictitious games and let them continue with their musings.


	3. More Information Needed

It took about a week before Gloria and David had photos of all three men from both sides of their faces and a direct straight on shot. They had decided to name them Larry, Curly and Moe. To make it easier to record in their book who was doing what, when.

Although there was a pattern emerging as to when each of the men was at the house and the rotation of which one stayed and which one left was lost on the two 10 year olds as they were at school all day and were only watching between getting home from school and supper time.

By the end of the second full week they also had a picture and license plate number of the men's personal vehicles, an open topped jeep, a mustang and Ford pick-up truck. The delivery van hadn't been seen since the bed and table were dropped off.

David suggested at the beginning of the third week that they needed to get closer to the house to see what was going on. Gloria wasn't so sure and she spouted things she'd heard her father say about stake outs. Not being seen, not approaching the suspects etc. David explained day after day that any investigation progresses past the point of observation and moves to inquiry. It took all week for Gloria to be convinced. But since no more information came to them, and they were running out of things to write in their book, she finally agreed.

So they were to think over the weekend about ways of approaching the house that would be considered normal and come up with a plan on Monday.

Both kids spent the weekend trying to figure out ways to get near the house and even talk to the new neighbours. By Monday after school both had several ideas. In the end they decided that baking a plate of cookies and taking them over would be the best way to both see inside the house and get a chance to talk to whichever guy was home.

Mrs. Marshall was happy to help the kids bake on Tuesday afternoon as soon as they got home. She was so pleased that the children were thinking of others and wanting to welcome the new neighbours. It reminded her of old times when the street was first being built. A time when being neighbourly was expected and done well.

Gloria and David each had a cookie to test them. They wanted to make sure they were good enough to give away, or at least that is what they convinced Mrs. Marshall they were doing.

Armed with their plate of cookies the two children crossed the street and confidently strolled up the front walk. David was carrying the plate so it was up to Gloria to ring the bell. They could hear the chimes on the other side of the door, and then a gruff voice saying "Who the hell is that?" The kids knew there was only one man home at the time so were confused as to who he was speaking to. Undaunted they waited, but didn't hear any movement towards the door.

Looking at each other David nodded with his head towards the bell and Gloria pushed it for a second time. Nondescript mumbling was heard and then a screech of a chair being pushed back along the floor. Heavy foot falls got louder as they neared the door. The two children still jumped when the door was flung open as the man, Larry, the only one they thought was non military gruffy spewed "What do you want?"

Gloria, so much like her mother, was able to recover the quickest. Tapping David on the shoulder to remind him to hand over the cookies she answered "We wanted to welcome you to the neighbourhood" she paused as the Larry looked rather confused and she wanted to give him time to process the information. She then continued "We brought you cookies! We baked them ourselves, well really we did most of the work but Mrs. Marshal, she looks after us after school you see, well she helped a bit too". Gloria was not about to stop anytime soon on her own and so David bumped her with his elbow to get her to hold up.

Larry, was looking very confused. He obviously had never been in a nice neighbourhood where they might welcome you with a plate of cookies. Or at least that is what the kids thought.

David held the plate up higher. Still confused, the man they called Larry, took the plate and then looked around outside as if he was expecting someone to be hiding in the bushes or just around the corner of the garage.

"We will come back tomorrow for the plate" Gloria said as the man began to close the door without saying a word.

As the latch clicked the kids turned and ran back to Gloria's not even looking both ways when they crossed the street. They continued to run up to the bedroom, not bothering to remove their shoes or answer Mrs. Marshall's inquiries as to how the cookie drop off went.

Throwing the door closed they both fell onto Gloria's bed laughing hysterically. The tension of the encounter being released through their gales. Mrs. Marshall entered the room to find them in the recovery phase of intermittent giggles.

"Now you two!" the older woman began "you are to take your shoes off when you come in and I expect an answer when I ask a question."

"Sorry Mrs. Marshall" Gloria was able to sputter out as she finished gaining control of herself. David still holding his breath to not continue giggling.

Both kids toed off their shoes and David asked "what was it you wanted to know?"

"How did the drop off go?" the older woman asked again, this time to a more receptive audience.

"Ah… OK" I guess David answered, Gloria eyeing him as she didn't want Mrs. Marshall thinking anything was amiss. "We told him we would come back for the plate tomorrow" Gloria finished.

"Oh lovely. Do they have any children?" Mrs Marshall asked knowing that really that was all the kids would care about.

"Uh… No" they answered in unison.

"What a shame" the older woman said as she exited and shut the door behind her.

The two kids howled with laughter again, neither even knowing why.

When they finally had themselves under control they started to dissect their mini adventure.

They realized that neither of them had done their pre planned jobs. They were to look into the house and see if they could see anything. They were supposed to ask if the man had children, even though they had never seen any, they thought getting the man to answer questions would give them more information.

The fact finding mission they decided wasn't a total waste as they had left the plate and told Larry they would be back tomorrow to collect it. They had a second opportunity to ask their questions.


End file.
